Frames, grids, rulers, and guides

About frames in InCopy files

As in Adobe
InDesign, all InCopy text and graphics appear inside frames. For linked
documents, InDesign controls the frame placement and design for
a publication. You can see the frame structure of the InDesign document
in InCopy Layout view.

Modifying frames

You (or someone on your
team) must make any changes to frames from within the InDesign document,
unless the frames are for inline graphics. You can move, scale,
rotate, or shear inline graphics frames, but not other frames. For
more information, see your workflow documentation.

Threading text

A long story can flow from
one frame to other frames that are connected in sequence, or threaded. A
threaded story begins on a particular column of a page and can continue
on any other columns and pages of the publication. The InDesign
user always sets up the threading sequence for an InCopy story.

When
you add text to a threaded story, the story flows through each successive frame
until all of the assigned frames are full.

Flow of threaded text: Original text in threaded frames (top);
after you add text to first frame, text reflows to second frame (bottom)

If the text doesn’t fit in its allotted frame
space, the hidden part of the story is called overset text.

Change measurement units and rulers

InCopy includes a vertical depth ruler
for copyfitting text in Galley and Story views, as well as horizontal
and vertical rulers in Layout view for measuring layouts. By default,
rulers begin measuring from the upper-left corner of a page or spread.
You can change this by moving the zero point.

You can work with several standard measurement units, change
these settings at any time, and temporarily override the
current measurement units as you enter a value. Changing the measurement
units doesn’t move guides, grids, and objects, so when ruler tick
marks change, they might not line up with objects aligned to the
old tick marks.

You
can set up different measurement systems for horizontal and vertical
rulers. For example, many newspapers measure horizontal layouts
in picas and vertical text stories in inches. The system you select
for the horizontal ruler governs tabs, margins, indents, and other
measurements. Each spread has its own vertical ruler; however, all
vertical rulers use the same settings you specify in the
Units & Increments section of the Preferences dialog box.

The default unit of measure for the rulers is picas (a pica equals
12 points). You can change the ruler units and control where the
major tick marks appear on a ruler. For example, if you change the
ruler unit for the vertical ruler to 12 points, a major ruler increment
appears every 12 points (if such a display is possible in the current
magnification). The tick mark labels include your customized major tick
marks, so when the ruler reads 3 in the same example, it marks the
third instance of the 12‑point increment, or 36 points.

Setting custom ruler increments in the vertical
ruler is useful for lining up a ruler’s major tick marks with a
baseline grid.

Specify the measurement units

You can set custom measurement
units for the on‑screen rulers and for use in panels and dialog
boxes. You can also change these settings at any time and temporarily
override the current measurement units as you enter a value.

For Horizontal and Vertical, choose the measurement system
you want to use for horizontal and vertical dimensions in rulers,
dialog boxes, and panels; choose Custom, and type the number of
points at which you want the ruler to display major tick marks.
Click OK.

Note:

You can also change ruler units by right-clicking
(Windows) or Control-clicking (Mac OS) a ruler, and choosing
the units from the context menu.

Override default measurement units

You can specify a unit of measurement
that is different from the default.

Highlight the existing value in a panel or dialog box,
and type the new value using the notation in the following table:

To specify:

Type these letters after the value:

Examples

Result

Q

q

6q

6 Q

Ha

h

6h

6 Ha

Inches

i

in

inch

"

5.25i

5.25in

5.25inch

5.25”

5 1/4 inches

Millimeters

mm

48mm

48 millimeters

Centimeters

cm

12cm

12 centimeters

Picas

p

3p

3 picas

Points

pt

p (before value)

6pt

p6

6 points

American points

ap

6ap

6 American points

Picas and points

p (between values)

3p6

3 picas, 6 points

Pixels

px

5px

5 pixels

Ciceros

c

5c

5 ciceros

Agates

ag

5ag

agates

Japanese measurement units

Q and Ha are
units used in a Japanese manual or automatic photo composer to show
font size, tracking or leading length. Each unit has a value of
0.25mm. Q is used only to express font size, Ha can be
used to express direction and length for leading, object spacing
and similar elements.

You can also use points (also known as American points) to indicate
font size on computers, or Adobe PostScript® points
to indicate leading or spacing. One American point is 0.35146 millimeters,
and there are 72.27 American points in 1 inch and 72 PostScript
points in 1 inch.

Change the zero point

The zero
point is the position at which the zeros on the
horizontal and vertical rulers intersect. By default, the zero point
is at the top left corner of the first page of each spread. This
means that the default position of the zero point is always the
same relative to a spread, but may seem to vary relative to the
pasteboard.

The X and Y position coordinates in the Control
panel, Info panel, and Transform panel are displayed relative to
the zero point. You can move the zero point to measure distances,
to create a new reference point for measurement, or to tile oversized
pages. By default, each spread has one zero point at the upper left corner
of the first page, but you can also locate it at the binding spine,
or specify that each page in a spread has its own zero point.

Adjust the zero point

When you move the zero point, it moves to
the same relative location in all spreads. For example, if you move
the zero point to the top left corner of the second page
of a page spread, it will appear in that position on the second
page of all other spreads in the document.

Do one of the following:

To move the zero point, drag from the intersection of the horizontal and vertical rulers to the position on the layout where you want to set the zero point.

Establishing a new zero point

To reset the zero point, double-click the intersection of the horizontal and vertical rulers .

To lock or unlock the zero point, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the zero point of the rulers, and choose Lock Zero Point in the context menu.

Change the default zero point

Using the Origin setting in the Preferences
dialog box, you can set the default zero point for rulers as well
as the scope of the horizontal ruler. The scope determines
whether the ruler measures across the page, across the entire spread,
or, for multipage spreads, from the center of the spine.

If
you set the ruler origin at each spread’s binding spine, the origin
becomes locked at the spine. You won’t be able to reposition the
ruler origin by dragging it from the intersection of the rulers
unless you choose another origin option.

In the Ruler Units section, in the Origin menu, do one
of the following:

To set the ruler origin at the top-left
corner of each spread, choose Spread. The horizontal ruler measures
across the entire spread.

To set the ruler origin at the top-left corner of
each page, choose Page. The horizontal ruler starts at zero for
each page in a spread.

To set the ruler origin at the center of the spine,
choose Spine. The horizontal ruler measures in negative numbers
to the left of the spine and positive numbers to the right of the
spine.

Note:

You can also change horizontal ruler
origin settings using the context menu that appears when you right-click
(Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the horizontal ruler.

Use grids

In
Layout view, you can view (or hide) a framework of grids and guides
to show the position and alignment of objects. In most work systems,
a designer working with InDesign sets up the grids and guides for
the publication. InCopy users can see these layout aids after an
InCopy story is linked to the InDesign document.

You can create grids within InCopy. But, because InDesign grids
override InCopy settings when files are linked, this feature is
more useful for stand-alone documents that you publish directly
from InCopy.

These grids and guides are never visible on printed or exported
output. One set of rulers and grids exists per page, but a guide
can exist across all pages of a spread or within only a single page.

Note:

Grids, rulers, and guides are not available
in Galley or Story view.

Set up a baseline grid

Use Grid Preferences to set up a baseline grid for the
entire document.

Specify a baseline grid color by choosing a color in the
Color menu. You can also choose Custom in the Color menu.

For Relative To, specify whether you want the grid to start
at the top of the page or the top margin.

For Start, type a value to offset the grid from either the
top of the page or the top margin of the page, depending on the
option you choose from the Relative To menu. If you have trouble
aligning the vertical ruler to this grid, try starting with a value
of zero.

For Increment Every, type a value for the spacing between
grid lines. In most cases, type a value that equals your body text
leading, so that lines of text align perfectly to this grid.

Baseline grid in document window

A. First grid line B. Increment
between grid lines

For View Threshold, type a value to specify the magnification
below which the grid does not appear. Increase the view
threshold to prevent crowded grid lines at lower magnifications.

Set up a document grid

Specify a document grid color by choosing a color in the
Color menu. You can also choose Custom in the Color menu.

To
set horizontal grid spacing, specify a value for Gridline Every
in the Horizontal section of the Document Grid section, and then
specify a value for Subdivisions between each grid line.

To set
vertical grid spacing, specify a value for Gridline Every in the
Vertical section of the Document Grid section, and then specify
a value for Subdivisions between each grid line.

Do one of the following, and click OK:

To put the document and baseline grids behind all other objects,
make sure that Grids In Back is selected.

To put the document and baseline grids in front of all other
objects, deselect Grids In Back.

Note:

To put guides behind all other objects, you can
also choose Guides In Back in the context menu that appears when
you right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) an
empty area of the document window.

View ruler guides

Ruler
guides are different from grids in that they can be positioned freely
on a page or on a pasteboard. InDesign users can create two kinds
of ruler guides: pageguides, which appear
only on the page on which they create them, or spreadguides,
which span all pages and the pasteboard of a multiple-page spread.
You can view ruler guides if they exist in the InDesign document
or assignment file, but you cannot create them in InCopy.

Guides

A. Spread guide B. Page guide

Show or hide ruler guides

Make sure that you are in Layout view;
if necessary, click the Layout view tab at the top of the edit pane.

Choose View > Grids & Guides >
Show/Hide Guides.

Display ruler guides behind objects

By default, ruler guides appear in front of
all other guides and objects. However, some ruler guides may block
your view of objects, such as lines with narrow stroke widths.

You
can change the Guides In Back preference to display ruler guides
in front of or behind all other objects. However, regardless of
the Guides In Back setting, objects and ruler guides are always
in front of margin and column guides.

Customize the pasteboard and guides

To change the color of margin or column guides, choose
a preset color from a menu, or choose Custom and specify a color
using the color picker.

To make the pasteboard bigger or smaller, enter a value
for Minimum Vertical Offset.

Click OK.

Use layers

Layers
are like transparent sheets stacked on top of each other. If a layer
doesn’t have objects on it, you can see through it to any objects
on layers behind it.

Only InDesign users can create layers. InCopy users can show
or hide layers, show or hide objects on layers, and change layers
settings. If the InDesign user created multiple layers in the document,
you can hide layers in InCopy, letting you edit specific areas or
kinds of content in the document without affecting other areas or
kinds of content. For example, if your document prints slowly because
it contains many large graphics, you can hide all non-text layers
and quickly print the text layer for proofreading.

Additional layer notes:

Objects on masters appear at the bottom of each layer.
Master objects can appear in front of document page objects if the
master page objects are on a higher layer.

Layers involve all pages of a document, including masters.
For example, if you hide Layer 1 while editing page 1 of your document,
the layer is hidden on all pages until you decide to show it again.

The Layers panel lists layers, with the frontmost layer appearing
at the top of the panel.

Show and hide layers

Choose
Window > Layers.

In the Layers panel, do any of the following:

To hide a specific layer, click the eye
icon to the left of the layer name.

To show a specific layer, click the space to the
left of the layer name.

Click a triangle next to a layer name to display
the layer objects. Click the eye icon to show or hide individual
objects.

To show or hide all layers at once, choose Show/Hide
All Layers from the panel menu.